Personalized location information for mobile devices

ABSTRACT

Providing location information on a mobile device includes receiving signals from external devices. Each signal includes information that specifies a geographic location for the external device that has provided the signal. A geographic location for the mobile device is calculated by using the information contained in each of the received signals. A representation of the geographic location of the mobile device is generated. The representation of the geographic location is included within an electronic message that provides information describing a user of the mobile device to other users of an electronic communications system. The electronic message is transmitted to another device to provide an indication of the geographic location for the user to one of the other users of the electronic communications system.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of priority to U.S. application Ser. No. 11/238,110, filed Sep. 29, 2005, titled “Personalized Location Information for Mobile Devices”, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/679,652, titled “Processing Information Describing Electronic Messaging Users,” and filed May 11, 2005, and U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/710,616, titled “Personalized Location Information for Mobile Devices,” and filed Aug. 24, 2005. The entire contents of all of the above applications are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This application relates to the personalization of location information for mobile devices.

BACKGROUND

In instant-messaging applications, users may communicate with each other by exchanging instant messages. An individual user may have a buddy list that includes the names of other users, known as “buddies,” with whom the user may communicate regularly. The user may send instant messages to any of the buddies, as well as other users not included in the buddy list, that are logged on to their respective computing stations. Any one of these buddies may store electronic content that can be shared with other users. For example, a buddy may store an “away” message that can be provided as an auto-response to other users to indicate that the buddy is presently away from his or her computing station or is otherwise unavailable to send and receive instant messages.

Away messages can serve several purposes. Many people use them to let others, such as their buddies, know exactly where they are. Others use away messages to provide creative expression, such as by publishing the lyrics of the song they just wrote or a funny quote they just heard in a movie. Recent studies have shown that individuals of certain age groups (such as college-aged adults) not only invest a fair amount of time creating multiple away messages per day, but they also spend a great deal of time reading the away messages of their buddies.

A very common use of away messages is to post your current location or activity so that buddies can easily keep track of where you are and be informed enough to join in your activity if they are up to it. Users often trust this service as a place to keep their personal information, such as contact information, so their friends can get in touch with them at any time. They use it to share information such as links to pictures, web logs (blogs), funny articles, declarations of love to a boyfriend/girlfriend, a countdown until the day they graduate, and other things of value. It is a quick way to provide a glimpse into the user's life and, in most cases, it also may provide a way to get more information about the user if a buddy wants to spend the time to do so.

SUMMARY

In one general aspect, providing location information on a mobile device includes receiving signals from external devices. Each signal includes information that specifies a geographic location for the external device that has provided the signal. A geographic location for the mobile device is calculated by using the information contained in each of the received signals. A representation of the geographic location of the mobile device is generated. The representation of the geographic location is included within an electronic message that provides information describing a user of the mobile device to other users of an electronic communications system. The electronic message is transmitted to another device to provide an indication of the geographic location for the user to one of the other users of the electronic communications system.

Implementations may include one or more of the following features. For example, generating a representation of the geographic location may include generating a representation of a location that is within a threshold distance from the calculated geographic location. Generating a representation of the geographic location also may include identifying a name of the geographic location. Identifying a name of the geographic location may include accessing a data store that includes indications of names of geographic locations.

Generating a representation of the geographic location may include prompting the user of the mobile device for the representation of the geographic location. Generating a representation of the geographic location also may include generating a commercial or social description of the geographic location.

Receiving signals from external devices may include receiving signals from one or more GPS satellites. Each signal received from an external device may include information that specifies a previous electronic message that provides information describing the user.

Including the representation of the geographic location within the electronic message may include overwriting a representation of a previous geographical location of the mobile device with the generated representation of the mobile device.

The generated representation of the geographic location may be stored such that the representation may be used without being generated again at a later time when the mobile device is at the geographic location. The user of the mobile device may be prompted to select the generated representation of the geographic location for inclusion in the electronic message at a next time at which the mobile device is located at the geographic location.

The user of the mobile device may be prompted to confirm that the representation of the geographic location should be included in the electronic message. Prompting the user may include prompting the user when the geographic location is more than a threshold distance away from a previous geographic location, or prompting the user when the geographic location has not changed for more than a threshold amount of time.

Calculating the geographic location may include calculating a latitude, a longitude, or an altitude of the geographic location. Calculating the geographic location may include calculating the geographic location in response to a user request.

The electronic message may indicate the availability of the user to send and receive electronic messages. The electronic message may include text, audio data, video data, or graphical data.

The mobile device may be at least one from a group including a personal computer, a mobile phone, and a personal digital assistant.

Including the representation of the geographic location within an electronic message may include identifying an electronic message based on the representation of the geographic location, or generating an electronic message based on the representation of the geographic location.

A determination may be made as to whether the geographic location is a geographic location for which the representation of the geographic location should be included in the electronic message. Including the representation of the geographic location in the electronic message may include including the representation of the geographic location in the electronic message when the geographic location is a geographic location for which the representation of the geographic location should be included in the electronic message.

The details of one or more implementations are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features, objects, and advantages will be apparent from the description and drawings, and from the claims.

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a networking system that is used for communication of electronic messages.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a system for identifying a location of a mobile computing device.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of a process for updating electronic content stored in association with a user with information describing a location of the user.

FIG. 4 is an illustration of an interface for specifying a location of a mobile computing device.

FIG. 5-7 are illustrations of interfaces displaying electronic messages that describe users.

FIG. 8 is an interface for displaying an electronic message describing a user as a response to an electronic message to the user.

FIG. 9 is an interface for displaying electronic messages describing multiple users.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of a computing device that may be included within the client and server systems shown in FIG. 1, according to one implementation.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Electronic content stored in association with a user is updated automatically with an indication of a location of the user. A mobile device used by the user identifies a location of the mobile device, which is assumed to be the location of the user. The user may be made able to name or otherwise identify the location identified by the mobile device. The mobile device stores an indication of the location within the user's electronic content such that the indication of the location is provided to other users that request and receive the electronic content. As the location of the user and the mobile device changes, new locations are identified and stored within the electronic content such that accurate indications of the location of the user are provided. Each time the location of the mobile device changes, or periodically, the user may be notified and asked to confirm that the location is correct and should be included in the electronic content.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a networking system 100 that is used for transmission of instant messages, according to one implementation. In this implementation, the system 100 includes an instant message (IM) server 102, a network 106, and client devices 108 a and 108 b. The IM server 102 is coupled to both the client device 108 a and the client device 108 b through the network 106. The network 106 is a wide-area network (WAN) in some implementations, and a local-area network (LAN) in others. The client devices 108 a and 108 b may each include a computing device, such as the computing device shown in FIG. 11. In certain implementations, the client devices 108 a and 108 b may be mobile devices, such as portable computers, cellular telephones, or personal digital assistants (PDAs).

During operation, the client device 108 a may initiate an instant-messaging session with the client device 108 b and send one or more IMs to the client device 108 b during the instant-messaging session. To do so, the client device 108 a invokes an IM application 110 a. In one implementation, a first user manually invokes the IM application 110 a. In another implementation, the client device 108 a automatically invokes the IM application 110 a at start-up. The client device 108 a also may include various other applications that operate at run-time, such as word-processing applications, web-browser applications, or mail applications. When a first user on the client device 108 a wishes to begin an instant-messaging session with a second user on the client device 108 b, the first user initiates a request. This request includes an address associated with the client device 108 b. The IM application 110 a on the client device 108 a sends this request to an IM manager application 104 on the IM server 102 using the network 106.

Upon receipt of this request from the client device 108 a, the IM manager application 104 uses the address contained within the request to locate the client device 108 b. The IM manager application 104 then routes the request to an IM application 110 b on the client device 108 b using the network 106. The IM application 110 b then processes this request and initiates a new instant-messaging session with the IM application 110 a on the client device 108 a. The second user on the client device 108 b is then notified by the IM application 10 b of the new session, and the first and second users of the client devices 108 a and 108 b are capable of exchanging IMs during the course of the instant-messaging session. The client device 108 b also may contain other applications, such as word-processing applications, web-browser applications, or mail applications.

In one implementation, the client device 108 a is capable of sending messages to and receiving messages from the client device 108 b through the network 106 without the use of the IM server 102. In this implementation, the IM applications 110 a and 110 b manage all of the IM functionality on the client devices 108 a and 108 b, respectively. Each of the IM applications 110 a and 110 b is capable of authenticating and locating other client devices to enable the exchange of messages to and from the client devices 108 a and 108 b, respectively.

The client devices 108 a and 108 b include away message repositories 112 a and 112 b. The away message repository 112 a includes one or more away messages that have been specified by a user of the client device 108 a. Each of the away messages may include information describing the user. For example, an away message may include an indication of a current location or activity of the user. In addition, the away message may include an indication of the availability of the user to send and receive instant messages. Furthermore, the away message may be identifiable by a title that may be considered to be part of the away message. In one implementation, the away message may include a profile of the user. The away messages included in the away message repositories 112 a and 112 b may include audio data, video data, graphical data, emoticons, and/or text.

The away message repositories 112 a and 112 b may include multiple types of away messages. For example, the repositories 112 a and 112 b may include online away messages for a user that are provided when the user is available to send and receive electronic messages. Similarly, the repositories 112 a and 112 b may include offline away messages for a user, which are away messages that are provided when the user is not available to send and receive electronic messages. The repositories also may include profiles that include information describing the user. Location away messages, which specify only user location, and mobile away messages, which are used when the client devices 112 a and 112 b are mobile devices, also may be stored within the repositories 112 a and 112 b.

The user of the client device 108 a may make one of the away messages stored in the away message repository 112 a accessible to the client device 108 b such that the away message may be transferred to the client device 108 b for processing or for presentation to a user of the client device 108 b. The user of the client device 108 a may select one of the away messages from the away message repository 112 a based on the information included in the away message. If none of the stored away messages include desirable information, then the user may specify a new away message including the desirable information for storage in the repository 112 a. In some implementations, the user of the client device 108 a may make multiple away messages included in the repository 112 a accessible for transfer to the client device 108 b and other client devices. The away message that is provided to the other client device may depend on an identity of a user of the other client device. For example, a first away message may be provided when the user of the other client device is a mother of the user of the client device 108 a, and a second away message may be provided when the user of the other client device is a friend of the user of the client device 108 a.

In one implementation, the away message repositories 112 a and 112 b may include old away messages that are no longer applicable to the corresponding users. For example, when the user of the client system 108 a modifies an original away message, the away message repository 112 a may maintain a copy of the original away message as well as the modified away message. The old away messages may be made accessible, for example, in the form of a web log (e.g., blog) such that more than just a most recent away message is accessible. Consequently, other users or systems that access the web log may be provided with indications of previous events, activities, locations, or characteristics of the user, as well as indications of more recent events, activities, locations, or characteristics of the user.

In some implementations, the IM application 110 a or the IM application 110 b may be configured to respond automatically to instant messages received at the client devices 108 a and 108 b. In addition, the IM applications 110 a and 110 b may be configured to perform some function identified by the received instant messages. For example, the client device 108 a may represent a mobile device used by a user, and the client device 108 b may be a desktop computer used by the user. In such a case, the mobile device may not include the away message repository 112 a, due to limited storage and processing capabilities. Instead, away messages for the user may be provided from the away message repository 112 b included in the desktop computer. The user may send an instant message from the mobile device to the desktop computer identifying an away message included in the away message repository 112 b to be made available to other users. The automatic response to the received instant message may indicate that the identified away message has been made available to the other users.

In some implementations, the users of the client devices 108 a and 108 b may specify user information feeds that periodically provide to other users information relating to the users. Alternatively or additionally, the IM server 102 may be configured to aggregate the information relating to the users into the user information feeds on behalf of the users. The user information feed for a user may include any information related to the user, such as entries included in an online journal of the user, an away message of the user, a profile of the user, media files of interest to the user, a playlist specifying an order in which the user listens to or watches the media files, recent communications sent and received by the user, and RSS feeds of interest to the user. The client devices 108 a and 108 b or the IM server 102 may periodically provide the user information feeds to other users who have subscribed to the information feeds. Alternatively or additionally, the client devices 108 a and 108 b or the IM server 102 may provide only portions of a user information feed that have been added or changed since a previous distribution of the user information feed.

Referring to FIG. 2, a system 200 is used to identify a geographic location of a client system 108 a for use with an IM application 110 a. A GPS application 205 of the client system 108 a communicates with satellite devices 210 a-210 c to identify a location of the client system 108 a. The client system 108 a also may communicate with a map server 215 and a directory server 220 through a network 106. The client system 108 a also includes an away message repository 112 a and a common name repository 225. The network 106, the client system 108 a, the IM application 110 a, and the away message repository 112 a are similar to corresponding components from FIG. 1.

The GPS application 205 is configured to determine a location of the client system 108 a. The GPS application 205 may include a GPS receiver and a location determination module. The GPS receiver is configured to communicate with the satellite devices 210 a-210 c. Based on the signals received from the satellite devices 210 a-210 c, the location determination module calculates a distance to each of the satellite devices 210 a-210 c. The location determination module then may determine the location of the client system 108 a based on the calculated distances to the satellite devices 210 a-210 c. The GPS application 205 may determine the location of the client system 108 a as latitude and longitude coordinates, which are also known as GPS coordinates.

The map server 215 provides addresses or other representations of locations identified by the GPS application 205. For example, the GPS application 205 may provide the map server 215 with the latitude and longitude coordinates identifying the location of the client system 108 a. In response, the map server may identify an address, a name, or another representation of the location of the client system 108 a. In some implementations, the functionality provided by the map server 215 may be included in the GPS application 205.

The directory server 220 also provides information about the location of the client system 108 a. More particularly given GPS coordinates or an address from the GPS application 205 or the map server 215, the directory server 220 may provide a name of the location. For example, if the client system 108 a is located at a business, the directory server 220 may provide a name of the business in response to the address. As another example, if the client system 108 a is located at a residence, the directory server 220 may provide the name of a person that lives at the residence. In some implementations, the directory server also may be configured to provide additional information describing the location, such as a phone number of the location. In some implementations, the functionality provided by the directory server 220 may be included in the GPS application 205.

The common name repository 225 stores alternative representations of the locations of the client system 108 a that were identified by the GPS application 110. For example, the common name repository 225 may store names and other information describing the locations that were provided by the map server 215 or the directory server 220, or by a user of the client system 108 a. The stored names and descriptive information for the previous locations may be used when the client system 108 a is subsequently located at one of the previous locations without having to identify the name or descriptive information again.

Referring to FIG. 3, a process 300 is used to identify and provide an indication of a location of a user based on a location of a mobile device used by the user. The process 300 may be executed by a mobile device, such as implementations of the client device 108 a of FIGS. 1 and 2 that are mobile devices.

The mobile device first receives signals indicating positions of one or more external devices (305). For example, the mobile device may receive signals indicating the position of the satellite devices 215 a-215 c of FIG. 2. More particularly, a GPS application of the mobile device, such as the GPS application 205 of FIG. 2, may receive the signals. Alternatively or additionally, the mobile device may receive the signals from other systems with which the mobile device communicates, such as cellular telephone towers. The signals also may indicate an address of the mobile device, such as an Internet Protocol (IP) address of the mobile device. The mobile device calculates a geographic location of the mobile device based on the received signals (310). More particularly, the GPS application may calculate the geographic location of the mobile device based on the received signals. Calculating the geographic location may include calculating a latitude measurement, a longitude measurement, and/or an altitude measurement for the geographic location. The mobile device may use triangulation to calculate the position based on the signals received from the satellite devices 215 a-215 c or the cellular telephone towers.

The mobile device may generate a representation of the geographic location of the mobile device (315). Alternatively, the mobile device may generate a representation of a location that is within a threshold distance from the geographic location. For example, if the mobile device is located in a parking lot of a business, the mobile device may generate a representation of the business instead of the parking lot if the business is within the threshold distance from the parking lot. The representation may be a name or another commercial or social description of the geographic location. For example, the representation of a business named “Bill's Bar” on Lake Street may be “Bill's,” “the bar,” “Bill's pub,” “Bill's on Lake,” or another variation of the name and location of the business. The representation of the geographic location also may include an indication of the geographic location itself. For example, a representation of a geographic location may include “Bill's Bar at 13 Lake Street,” in which case “Bill's Bar” is the representation of the geographic location, which is “13 Lake Street.”

In one implementation, the mobile device may contact a map server, such as the map server 215 of FIG. 2, or a directory server, such as the directory server 220 of FIG. 2, to identify the representation of the geographic location. For example, the mobile device may provide an indication of the geographic location to the map server or the directory server, and the map server of the directory server may generate and provide the representation of the geographic location to the mobile device in response.

In another implementation, the mobile device prompts a user of the mobile device for a representation of the geographic location. For example, a user interface displayed on the mobile device may include an indication of the geographic location that was identified by the mobile device, the map server, or the directory server. The user may use the user interface to specify the representation of the indicated geographic location. The mobile device may store a representation of the geographic location for later use when the mobile device returns the geographic location.

In another implementation, the mobile device may identify the representation automatically and may prompt the user for confirmation of the automatically identified representation. The mobile device may prompt the user for confirmation, for example, if the mobile device determines that the geographic location of the mobile device has changed substantially (e.g., by more than a threshold distance), or if the geographic location has not changed for longer than a threshold amount of time.

The mobile device includes the representation in an electronic message that provides information describing the user of the mobile device (320). For example, the mobile device may include the representation of the geographic location in an away message of the user. The away message may be stored in an away message repository that is local to the mobile device, such as the away message repository 112 a of FIGS. 1 and 2. Alternatively, the away message may be stored at an IM server through which the user communicates with other users. If the electronic message already includes a representation of a previous geographic location of the mobile device, the mobile device may overwrite the representation of the previous geographic location with the newly identified geographic representation. If the representation of the geographic location includes an indication of the geographic location itself, the representation and the geographic location may be included in different parts of the electronic message.

In some implementations, the user of the mobile device may maintain multiple electronic messages, and each electronic message may be made available to only a subset of other users. For example, the user may maintain a first electronic message that is provided to family members and a second electronic message that is provided to friends. In such a case, the representation of the geographic location may be included in only a subset of the electronic messages. For example, if the user is located at a bar, the representation of the geographic location may be included only in the second electronic message that is provided to friends of the user. Alternatively or additionally, multiple representations of the geographic location may be generated for inclusion in particular ones of the electronic messages. For example, a first representation indicating that the user is “out with friends” may be generated for inclusion in the first electronic message, and another representation indicating that the user is “at the bar” may be generated for inclusion in the second electronic message.

The mobile device then receives a request for the electronic message from a different user (325). For example, the mobile device receives the request from a client system used by the different user, such as the client system 108 b of FIG. 1. In response to the received request, the mobile device provides the representation of the geographic location to the different user as part of the electronic message (330). The mobile device may provide the electronic message from the local away message repository, or from the IM server. For example, the mobile device may provide the electronic message to the different user directly. Alternatively, the mobile device may request that the IM server provide the electronic message to the different user. As a result, the different user is made aware of the geographic location of the user of the mobile device.

In one implementation, a server side process, such as a process running on the IM server 102 of FIG. 1, receives GPS coordinates or another indication of the location of the mobile device from the mobile device. The server side process identifies a common name (e.g. Starbucks on 9th and M, or RFK stadium, or “GMU computer lab”) based on the indicated location received from the mobile device, for example, using the map server 215, the directory server 220, or the common name repository 225 of FIG. 2, as described above. The server side process may make the common name available in away messages, participant lists, or the common name repository 225 for access by other users. This common name location information can also be used for purposes of grouping by location, searching by location, or other location-based activities.

The process 300 may be executed by the mobile device multiple times. For example, the mobile device may periodically determine the location of the mobile device (305, 310). If the location has changed substantially from a previously determined location, then the electronic message of the user of the mobile device may need to be updated. Consequently, the mobile device may complete execution of the process 300 to update the electronic message and to provide the electronic message to other users after the electronic message has been updated. Even if the location of the mobile device has changed, the user may be prompted before the electronic message is updated, in case that the user does not desire to update the electronic message, for example, because the user anticipates that the location of the mobile device will change again soon.

Furthermore, the user may be enabled to indicate when the process 300 should be executed. For example, the user may be enabled to manually request execution of the process 300. Alternatively or additionally, the user may be enabled to specify a set of locations in which the electronic message of the user should be updated with the location of the user. The mobile device may begin execution of the process 300 periodically to determine its location. If the location of the mobile device matches one of the previously specified locations, then execution of the process 300 completes to update the electronic message describing the user.

Some implementations of the process 300 may be executed by an IM server, such as the IM server 102 of FIG. 1. In such implementations, rather than identifying the geographic location of the mobile device, the IM server simply receives the location from the mobile device. The IM server may generate the representation of the geographic location locally (315), or the IM server may receive the representation from the mobile device. The IM server then includes the representation in the electronic message describing the user of the mobile device (320). The IM server may receive a request for the electronic message (325) and may provide the representation as part of the electronic message (330). The IM server may access and provide the electronic message from the away message repository of the mobile device, or from a local copy of the electronic message.

Other implementations of the process 300 may not include the representation of the geographic location in the electronic message describing the user of mobile device (320). Instead, the representation of the geographic location may be used to identify an appropriate electronic message from a set of previously specified electronic messages. The appropriate electronic message may not explicitly indicate the geographic location of the mobile device. However, the electronic message is only an appropriate description of the user when the mobile device is at the geographic location. For example, the representation of the geographic location may indicate that the mobile device is at a workplace of the user. Consequently, an electronic message that includes the text “earning my paycheck” may be identified as an appropriate description of the user, based on the geographic location.

Alternatively or additionally, the appropriate electronic message may be generated automatically based on the representation of the geographic location. The automatically generated electronic message may include audio data, video data, graphical data, emoticons, or text. For example, if the representation of the geographic location indicates that the user is at his gym, an electronic message including a video of a person running, a picture of a barbell, and the text “feeling the burn” may be generated. The automatically generated electronic message may be stored for later use in an away message repository corresponding to the mobile device, such as one of the away message repositories 112 a or 112 b of FIG. 1.

Referring to FIG. 4, an interface 400 enables a user of a mobile device to generate a representation of an otherwise automatically identified geographic location of the mobile device. The interface 400 may be presented on the mobile device during execution of the process 300 of FIG. 3. The interface includes a geographic location indicator 405, a selection list 410 and a text box 415 with which the representation may be specified, and a button 420 for selecting the specified option.

The geographic location indicator 405 provides an indication of a geographic location of the mobile device. The indicated geographic location may be calculated by a GPS application of the mobile device, as described above with respect to operations 305 and 310 of the process 300 of FIG. 3. Alternatively or additionally, the mobile device may access a map server or a directory server to identify the indicated geographic location, as described above with respect to operation 315 of the process 300 of FIG. 3. For example, in the illustrated implementation, the geographic location indicator 405 includes an address that was identified by the map server in response to GPS coordinates provided by the mobile device.

The selection box 410 enables the user of the interface 400 to select the representation of the indicated geographic location from among a set of representations of previous geographic locations of the mobile device. The representations that are selectable from the selection box 410 may have been saved after being generated when the mobile device was located at the previous geographic locations. In one implementation, if a representation of the geographic location indicated by the geographic location indicator has been identified and saved previously, then that representation may be presented as a default value for the selection box 410. The options included in the selection box 410 may represent text, audio data, video data, or graphical data.

If a representation corresponding to the indicated geographic location is not included as a selectable option of the selection box 410, the user may specify the representation manually using the text field 415. Alternatively or additionally, the text field 415 may be used to identify a non-textual representation of the indicated geographic location. For example, the text field 415 may be used to specify a location of an image file, an audio file, or a video file that is to serve as the representation of the indicated geographic location.

Selecting the button 420 associates the representation specified by the selection box 410 or the text field 415 with the geographic location indicated by the geographic location indicator 405. In one implementation, if no text is specified in the text field 415, and no option is selected from the selection box 410, then selecting the button 420 sets the indicated geographic location as its own representation. In another implementation, the indicated geographic location may be included as part of the representation of the geographic location. In some implementations, the specified representation may be stored in association with the indicated geographic location for use when the mobile device returns to the indicated geographic location. In some implementations, selecting the button 420 also may dismiss the interface 400.

Referring to FIG. 5, an away message display interface 500 displays an away message 505 describing a particular user. The user for which the away message is displayed is identified in a text box 510. The away message display interface 500 also may display separately a profile 515 of the user, particularly when the profile is not included in the away message 505. The combination of the away message 505 and the profile 515 provides information describing the user to an individual for which the away message display interface 500 is displayed.

The interface 500 illustrated in FIG. 5 may be displayed prior to execution of the process 300 of FIG. 3. Consequently, the away message 505 and the profile 515 do not include an indication of a geographic location of the user. Referring also to FIG. 6, the interface 500 also may be displayed after a first execution of the process 300. At the time of the first execution of the process 300 by a mobile device of the user, the user and the mobile device may be located at “Sam's Pub at 13 Lake Street.” Such a representation of the location of the mobile device may be identified and included in the away message 505 as a result of the first execution of the process 300. When the away message 505 is requested and displayed as illustrated in FIG. 6, the away message 505 includes the representation of the location.

Referring also to FIG. 7, the interface 500 also may be displayed after a subsequent execution of the process 300. At the time of the subsequent execution of the process 300 by the mobile device of the user, the user and the mobile device may have moved from “Sam's Pub” to “Bill's Pizza at 25 State Street.” Such a representation of the location of the mobile device may be identified and included in the away message 505 as a result of the subsequent execution of the process 300. When the away message 505 is requested and displayed as illustrated in FIG. 7, the away message 505 includes the representation of the location.

Referring also to FIG. 8, an away message including information describing a user's location may be displayed in an instant messaging interface 800, which enables instant messages to be sent and received. A sender of instant messages may use the instant messaging interface 800 to send an instant message to a recipient for which the process 300 was executed previously.

The instant messaging interface 800 includes a message history box 805 that lists the instant messages sent between the sender and the recipient. The message history box 805 also may be referred to as a message transcript box 805. Each message is presented with an indication of an identifier by which the sender or the recipient is identified as the sender of the message. Each message listed in the message history box 805 also includes the text of the instant message sent by the sender or the recipient. For example, the message history box 805 includes a message 810 sent by a user with a screen name “MyUser” and a message 815 sent by a user with a screen name “Buddy1.” In one implementation, each message listed in the message history box 805 includes a time stamp of when the message was sent. The users that sent the messages 810 and 815 are the recipient and the sender, respectively. In some implementations, the message history box may include automatically sent messages that were not specified manually by the sender of the recipient. For example, the automatically sent messages may inform the recipient that the sender has not used the instant messaging interface 800 for more than a threshold amount of time.

In typical implementations, the message history box 805 includes only those instant messages sent between the sender and the recipient after the interface 800 was displayed initially. In other implementations, the instant messages reflected in the message history box 805 may be saved when the interface 800 is dismissed, for example, such that the message history box 805 may be repopulated with those instant messages when the interface 800 is displayed again at a later time.

The instant messaging interface 800 also includes a message specification box 820 in which the sender may specify a message to be sent to the recipient. The sender may enter text to be sent to the recipient in the message specification box 820. The instant message interface 800 includes a set of format controls 825 that may be used to format the text entered in the message specification box 820. More particularly, the controls in the set of format controls 825 enable the user to change the size, foreground color, background color, style, and effects of the text entered in the message specification box 820. The set of format controls 825 also includes controls for inserting objects that are not plain text, such as hyperlinks and emoticons, into the message specification box 820.

After a message has been specified in the message specification box 820, the message may be sent by selecting a send button 825 included in a second control set 830. After the send button 835 has been selected, the text that has been entered in the message specification box 820 is sent to the recipient, and the message specification box 820 is cleared. The message is added to the message history box 805. The message also is displayed in a message history box 805 of an instance of the instant messaging interface 800 being viewed by the recipient. Also included in the second control set 830 are controls for warning instant message senders, blocking instant messages from particular senders, or adding another sender to a participant list used by the sender.

The recipient with the identifier “Buddy1” may be unavailable to send and receive instant messages at a time when the sender with the identifier “MyUser” sent the message 810. As a result the recipient may have chosen a descriptive message to be sent automatically to other users, such as the sender, that send the recipient instant messages. The descriptive message may include a representation of the geographic location of the recipient that was identified and included in the descriptive message through execution of the process 300 of FIG. 3. The message 815, which indicates that the recipient is located at “Sam's Pub at 13 Lake Street,” may represent such a descriptive message, which is why the message 815 is labeled as an “AutoResponse from Buddy1.” The message 815 may be processed or simply presented to the sender with the instant messaging interface 800. The sender may continue to send instant messages to the recipient, if so desired.

Referring to FIG. 9, an away message display interface 900 is similar to the away message display interfaces 500 of FIGS. 5-7. However, instead of displaying information describing a single user, the away message display interface 900 displays information describing multiple users. In one implementation, the interface 900 is a web page that may be displayed in a web browser. In another implementation, the interface 900 may be configured for display on a device with limited display capabilities, such as a mobile device.

Identifiers 905 a-905 d for the users are displayed on the left side of the interface 900. Away messages 910 a-910 d describing the users are displayed next to the identifiers 905 a-905 d. A profile of a user may be displayed next to the identifier of the user in the interface 900, for example, when the profile is not included in the away message for the user, of when the user has not otherwise indicated that the profile is no to be displayed. For example, the interface 900 includes a profile 915 a of the user corresponding to the identifier 905 a and a profile 915 b of the user corresponding to the identifier 905 d. In the illustrated implementation, the profiles 915 a and 915 b are displayed next to the identifiers 905 a and 905 d.

One or more of the away messages 910 a-910 d may include a representation of a geographic location of a corresponding user. The representation may be included in the away message through execution of the process 300 of FIG. 3 on behalf of the corresponding user. For example, the away message 910 b for the user corresponding to the identifier 905 b includes a representation of the location of the user. For example, in the illustrated implementation, the away message 910 b indicates that the user is at “Sam's Pub at 13 Lake Street.”

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of a computing device 1000 that may be included within the IM server 102 and/or the client devices 108 a and 108 b. The computing device 1000 may represent a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, or a mobile computing device, such as a portable computer, a mobile telephone, or a PDA. The computing device 1000 includes a processor 1005, a memory 1010, an input/output controller 1015, a GPS receiver 1020, a network adapter 1025, and a storage device 1030. Each of the components 1005, 1010, 1015, 1020, 1025, and 1030 are interconnected using a system bus 1035.

The processor 1005 is capable of processing instructions for execution within the computing device 1000. In one implementation, the processor 1005 is a single-threaded processor. In another implementation, the processor 1005 is a multi-threaded processor. The processor 1005 is capable of processing instructions stored in the memory 1010 or on the storage device 1025 to display graphical information for a GUI on an external input/output device that is coupled to the input/output controller 1015.

The memory 1010 stores information within the computing device 1000. In one implementation, the memory 1010 is a computer-readable medium. In one implementation, the memory 1010 is a volatile memory unit. In another implementation, the memory 1010 is a non-volatile memory unit.

The input/output controller 1015 manages input/output operations for the computing device 1000. In one implementation, the input/output controller 1015 is coupled to an external input/output device, such as a keyboard, a pointing device, or a display unit that is capable of displaying various GUIs, such as the GUIs shown in the previous figures, to a user.

The GPS receiver 1020 is similar to the GPS application 205 of FIG. 2. The GPS receiver 1020 is configured to receive signals from multiple GPS satellites, such as the satellite devices 210 a-210 c of FIG. 2, and to use the received signals to calculate a location of the computing device 1000, for example, as GPS coordinates.

The computing device 1000 uses the network adapter 1025 to communicate with other network devices. If, for example, the client device 108 a is a mobile device that includes the computing device 1000, the computing device 1000 uses its network adapter 1025 to communicate with the host server 106 over a wireless connection.

The storage device 1030 is capable of providing mass storage for the computing device 1000. In one implementation, the storage device 1030 is a computer-readable medium. In various different implementations, the storage device 1030 may be a floppy disk device, a hard disk device, an optical disk device, or a tape device.

In one implementation, a computer program product is tangibly embodied in an information carrier. The computer program product contains instructions that, when executed, perform one or more methods, such as those described above. The information carrier is a computer- or machine-readable medium, such as the memory 1010, the storage device 1030, or a propagated signal.

A number of implementations have been described. Nevertheless, it will be understood that various modifications may be made. Accordingly, other implementations are within the scope of the following claims. 

1. A computer-implemented method of providing information about a location attributable to a user of an electronic communications system to other users of the electronic communications system, the method comprising: accessing an indication of a location attributable to a user of an electronic communications system; in response to accessing the indication of the location attributable to the user of the electronic communications system, updating a message that is descriptive of the user of the electronic communications system to include a descriptive representation of the location attributable to the user of the electronic communications system; making available the updated message, which is descriptive of the user of the electronic communications system and which has been updated to include the descriptive representation of the location attributable to the user of the electronic communications system, to only a first limited subset of users of the electronic communications system; and making available an alternative message, which is descriptive of the user but which has not been similarly updated to include the descriptive representation of the location attributable to the user of the electronic communications system, to a second limited subset of users of the electronic communications system as an alternative to the message that is descriptive of the user of the electronic communications system and that includes the descriptive representation of the location attributable to the user of the electronic communications system.
 2. The method of claim 1 wherein making available an alternative message to a second limited subset of users of the electronic communications system includes making available an alternative message, which is descriptive of the user and which includes an alternative descriptive representation of the location attributable to the user of the electronic communications system that is different than the descriptive representation of the location attributable to the user of the electronic communications system, to the second limited subset of users of the electronic communication system.
 3. The method of claim 1 further comprising: enabling configuration to effect restriction of availability of the updated message to only a first limited subset of users of the electronic communications system that the user of the electronic communications system has designated as being friends of the user of the electronic communications system; and enabling configuration to effect restriction of availability of the alternative message to a second limited subset of users of the electronic communications system that the user of the electronic communications system has designated as being family members of the user of the electronic communications system.
 4. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving the indication of the location attributable to the user of the electronic communications system includes receiving the indication of the location attributable to the user of the electronic communications system from a mobile device that is associated with the user of the electronic communications system.
 5. The method of claim 1 wherein: the electronic communications system is an instant messaging system; and the method further comprises: enabling configuration to effect restriction of availability of the updated message to only a first limited subset of users of the instant messaging system; and enabling configuration to effect restriction of availability of the alternative message to a second limited subset of users of the instant messaging system.
 6. The method of claim 1 wherein making available the updated message to only a first limited subset of users of the electronic communications system includes limiting access to the updated message to the first limited subset of users of the electronic communications system.
 7. The method of claim 1 wherein making available the alternative message to a second limited subset of users of the electronic communications system includes making the alternative message available to a second limited subset of users of the electronic communications system that does not include any of the first limited subset of users of the electronic communications system.
 8. The method of claim 1 wherein updating a message that is descriptive of the user of the electronic communications system to include a descriptive representation of the location attributable to the user of the electronic communications system includes updating a message that is configured to reveal a status of the user of the electronic communications system to include a descriptive representation of the location attributable to the user of the electronic communications system.
 9. The method of claim 1 wherein updating a message that is descriptive of the user of the electronic communications system to include a descriptive representation of the location attributable to the user of the electronic communications system includes updating a message that is configured to reveal availability of the user of the electronic communications system to include a descriptive representation of the location attributable to the user of the electronic communications system.
 10. A computer-implemented method of providing information about a status of a user of an instant messaging system to other users of the instant messaging system, the method comprising: maintaining, on behalf of a user of an instant messaging system, a first status message, the first status message having been designated by the user as being intended for a first limited subset of co-users of the instant messaging system and reflecting a status of the user that the user intends to communicate to constituent members of the first limited subset of co-users; maintaining, on behalf of the user of the instant messaging system and concurrently with maintaining the first status message, a second status message, the second status message being different from the first status message and having been designated by the user as being intended for a second limited subset of co-users of the instant messaging system and reflecting a status of the user that the user intends to communicate to constituent members of the second limited subset of co-users; processing an instruction to generate, on behalf of the user of the instant messaging system, automatic responses to incoming instant messages intended for the user of the instant messaging system; receiving an indication of a location attributable to the user of the instant messaging system; in response to receiving the indication of the location attributable to the user of the instant messaging system, updating the first status message maintained on behalf of the user to include a representation of the location attributable to the user of the instant messaging system; and after having processed the instruction to generate automatic responses to incoming instant messages intended for the user of the instant messaging system and after having updated the first status message maintained on behalf of the user to include the representation of the location attributable to the user of the instant messaging system: receiving, from a first co-user of the instant messaging system, a first instant message intended for the user of the instant messaging system, in response to receiving the first instant message intended for the user of the instant messaging system: identifying the first co-user of the instant messaging system as the sender of the first instant message intended for the user of the instant messaging system, determining that the first co-user of the instant messaging system is a member of the first limited subset of co-users, as a consequence of having processed the instruction to generate automatic responses to incoming instant messages intended for the user of the instant messaging system and as a consequence of having determined that the first co-user of the instant messaging system is a member of the first limited subset of co-users, generating a first automatic response to the first instant message, the first automatically-generated response including the updated first status message maintained on behalf of the user of the instant messaging system, and transmitting the first automatically-generated response, including the updated first status message, to the first co-user of the instant messaging system, receiving, from a second co-user of the instant messaging system, a second instant message intended for the user of the instant messaging system, and in response to receiving the second instant message intended for the user of the instant messaging system: identifying the second co-user of the instant messaging system as the sender of the second instant message intended for the user of the instant messaging system, determining that the second co-user of the instant messaging system is a member of the second limited subset of co-users, as a consequence of having processed the instruction to generate automatic responses to incoming instant messages intended for the user of the instant messaging system and as a consequence of having determined that the second co-user of the instant messaging system is a member of the second limited subset of co-users, generating a second automatic response to the second instant message, the second automatically-generated response including the second status message maintained on behalf of the user of the instant messaging system, and transmitting the second automatically-generated response, including the second status message, to the second co-user of the instant messaging system.
 11. The method of claim 10 further comprising updating the second status message maintained on behalf of the user to include an alternative representation of the location attributable to the user of the instant messaging system in response to receiving the indication of the location attributable to the user of the instant messaging system, the alternative representation of the location attributable to the user of the instant messaging system included in the updated second status message being different from the representation of the location attributable to the user of the instant messaging system included in the updated first status message, wherein: generating a second automatic response to the second instant message includes generating a second automatic response that includes the updated second status message, and transmitting the second automatically-generated response to the second co-user of the instant messaging system includes transmitting the second automatically-generated response, including the updated second status message, to the second co-user of the instant messaging system.
 12. The method of claim 10 further comprising updating the second status message maintained on behalf of the user to include an alternative status of the user in response to receiving the indication of the location attributable to the user of the instant messaging system, the alternative status of the user included in the updated second status message being different from the representation of the location attributable to the user of the instant messaging system included in the updated first status message, wherein: generating a second automatic response to the second instant message includes generating a second automatic response that includes the updated second status message, and transmitting the second automatically-generated response to the second co-user of the instant messaging system includes transmitting the second automatically-generated response, including the updated second status message, to the second co-user of the instant messaging system.
 13. The method of claim 12 wherein: updating the first status message maintained on behalf of the user to include a representation of the location attributable to the user of the instant messaging system in response to receiving the indication of the location attributable to the user of the instant messaging system includes: in response to receiving the indication of the location attributable to the user of the instant messaging system, prompting the user of the instant messaging system to supply a representation of the location attributable to the user, receiving, from the user, a user-supplied representation of the location attributable to the user, and updating the first status message maintained on behalf of the user to include the user-supplied representation of the location attributable to the user; and updating the second status message maintained on behalf of the user to include an alternative status of the user in response to receiving the indication of the location attributable to the user of the instant messaging system includes: in response to receiving the indication of the location attributable to the user of the instant messaging system, prompting the user of the instant messaging system to supply an alternative status, receiving, from the user, a user-supplied alternative status, and updating the second status message maintained on behalf of the user to include the user-supplied alternative status.
 14. The method of claim 10 wherein: receiving an indication of a location attributable to the user of the instant messaging system includes receiving geographic coordinates of a location attributable to the user of the instant messaging system; and updating the first status message maintained on behalf of the user to include a representation of the location attributable to the user of the instant messaging system includes: generating a representation of the location attributable to the user of the instant messaging system based on the received geographic coordinates of the location attributable to the user of the instant messaging system, and updating the first status message maintained on behalf of the user to include the generated representation of the location attributable to the user of the instant messaging system.
 15. The method of claim 14 wherein receiving geographic coordinates of a location attributable to the user of the instant messaging system includes receiving the geographic coordinates of the location attributable to the user of the instant messaging system from a mobile telephone associated with the user of the instant messaging system.
 16. The method of claim 10 wherein receiving an indication of a location attributable to the user of the instant messaging system includes receiving the indication of the location attributable to the user of the instant messaging system from a mobile telephone associated with the user of the instant messaging system.
 17. The method of claim 10 wherein: maintaining, on behalf of the user of the instant messaging system, a first status message that the user has designated as being intended for a first limited subset of co-users of the instant messaging system includes maintaining, on behalf of the user of the instant messaging system, a first status message that the user has designated as being intended for a subset of co-users of the instant messaging system that the user has designated as being friends of the user; maintaining, on behalf of the user of the instant messaging system, a second status message that the user has designated as being intended for a second limited subset of co-users of the instant messaging system includes maintaining, on behalf of the user of the instant messaging system, a second status message that the user has designated as being intended for a subset of co-users of the instant messaging system that the user has designated as being family members of the user; determining that the first co-user of the instant messaging system is a member of the first limited subset of co-users includes determining that the first co-user of the instant messaging system belongs to a limited subset of co-users that the user of the instant messaging system has designated as being friends of the user of the instant messaging system; and determining that the second co-user of the instant messaging system is a member of the second limited subset of co-users includes determining that the second co-user of the instant messaging system belongs to a limited subset of co-users that the user of the instant messaging system has designated as being family members of the user of the instant messaging system.
 18. The method of claim 10 wherein: maintaining, on behalf of the user of the instant messaging system, a second status message that the user has designated as being intended for a second limited subset of co-users of the instant messaging system includes maintaining, on behalf of the user of the instant messaging system, a second status message that the user has designated as being intended for a second limited subset of co-users of the instant messaging system the constituent members of which do not overlap with the constituent members of the first limited subset of co-users of the instant messaging system. 